Will Snapchat Be Facebook’s Next Instagram, Despite Rejecting A $3B+ Acquisition Offer?

An acquisition offer of more than $3 billion is nothing to sneeze at, but photo-messaging application Snapchat sneezed, turning down an all-cash offer from Facebook, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog.

Sources told Digits Snapchat Co-Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel will not consider acquisition or investments until early next year, in the hopes that growth in its user base will inflate the value of the company, which was pegged at $4 billion, according to an investment proposal by Chinese ecommerce company Tencent Holdings.

Digits reported that Facebook had approached Snapchat in the past with an offer of more than $1 billion.

Snapchat messages, which consist of text and photos, disappear after a few seconds, and Digits speculated that Facebook’s interest in the company was sparked by the fact that the majority of its users access the service via mobile devices. According to Digits, Snapchat does not generate any revenue.

Digits reported that Snapshot closed a $60 million funding round in June that valued it at $800 million, and three months later, the company reported that its usage had skyrocketed to 350 million “snaps” (messages) per day, from 200 million in June.

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